Use of a postage meter to frank postage on mailpieces is ubiquitous. A stacking system is often used to efficiently assemble the mailpieces after they are processed by the postage meter. One such stacking system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,995, issued Apr. 1, 1997 to Nobile et al. (hereinafter "the Nobile patent"), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Specifically, the Nobile stacking system uses a pressure pad to direct mailpieces received from the postage meter onto a set of conveyance belts in the system to cause consecutive mailpieces to be arranged in a shingled overlapped relationship. The pressure pad is also used to exert force on the mailpieces to ensure feeding contact between the mailpieces and the conveyance belts. The conveyance belts transport the shingled mailpieces toward a stacking wall against which the mailpieces are pushed upwardly to form a stack.